You won’t find their photos in any pop culture gossip magazines.
Comparatively few people care who they date/marry/divorce, and even less take notice when they get a new hairdo.
They don’t appear in cheeky soda commercials either, or beseech late night TV viewers to donate a quarter a day to [insert cause here].
But they are the true stars of the film world.
The “they” in question, of course, are the directors.
“If a director is more than just a journeyman, he — or she — does everything and is the one responsible for the final product and usually takes the blame, or conversely reaps the honor, depending on how it turns out,” Frank Buxton said. “You rarely see them, and in most cases, you have no interest in them.”
Buxton and John Ellis are the cocurators of the latest smARTfilm series at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, “Great Directors,” continuing Tuesday, April 18 with “Stagecoach,” which sets out to generate some interest in the minds behind the movies.
The seven-film series began with Jean Renoir’s “La Grande Illusion” on April 11, and continues at 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday through May 23 with works by John Ford, Ernst Lubitsch, Orson Welles, David Leans, Akira Kurosawa and Fredrico Fellini.
Tickets, $10 each, can be purchased in advance at www.biartmuseum.org. The auditorium opens at 7 p.m. There is an additional dinner service available as well in the BIMA Bistro before each screening. Seatings begin at 5:30 p.m., reservations are recommended.
The seven silver screen superstars featured in this series are far from being alone in their revered status among the cineaste crowd (Alfred Hitchcock is noticeably absent, for one), Buxton admitted. However, while the possibility of a second, continuing series is even now being floated around, he posited these seven men as a perfect place to start such a study.
“There are hundreds of films that deserve to be looked at,” he said. “And we want to share them and we want to make people conscious of them. The more time that goes by, the more technology changes, the more it’s possible to look at a movie on [a phone]. And man, do I hate that.”
Cellphone screens and televisions are OK for basic study, or as a way to rewatch an old favorite, but great films, Buxton said, are meant to be seen larger than life in the company of others.
“It depends upon the people, it depends on the event,” he said. “I think your experience of a movie — of a play, of a ballet of a concert and so forth — the things that stay with me, are the ones I saw, the ones I experienced.”
BIMA spokesman Korum Bischoff said the film series have been a very popular offering through each new iteration, proving many patrons must feel as Buxton does.
“I think there’s something to be said for that experience,” he said. “I don’t know that it’s the size of the screen necessarily.”
“It’s the size of the experience,” agreed Buxton. “If you look at ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ on your cell phone, you’re going to miss a few camels because you ain’t going to see them.”
Though David Lean’s epic masterpiece is not included in this series, the selected films are just as iconic. The screening schedule is:
April 18, “Stagecoach;”
April 25, “The Shop Around the Corner;”
May 2, “Citizen Kane;”
May 9, “Great Expectations;”
May 16, “Rashomon;” and
May 23, “La Dolce Vita.”
Though equally lionized, the films themselves are as different as the men who made them, Buxton said.
“When you study these great directors you do come to the realization that they all had their way of doing it,” he said. “Everybody has their own individual method.”
Some were very aloof, others involved in every little thing. Some were prone to work with the same actors repeatedly, others sought out unknown talent. But the results they achieved were the same: great art.
“This is an educational experience,” Buxton said. “And I figure the people who come to this are also interested in the experience of seeing something that they might not see anywhere else.”
